Q3 2026 Platform Update
This release covers backup schedules and billing, managed Kubernetes billing, Store purchasing, and Marketplace deployment emails. Items released earlier in the quarter are listed under Also Shipped in Q3 2026.
Summary
Section titled “Summary”| Area | Change | Billing impact |
|---|---|---|
| Backups | Create, edit, pause, resume, and run schedules. Per-schedule timezone and retention. | Yes. Storage-based billing. |
| Backups | Activity logs for schedule changes, runs, failures, and retention cleanup. | No |
| Kubernetes | Billing moves from a cluster charge to the resources provisioned for the cluster. | Yes. Resource-based billing. |
| Kubernetes | Separate CPU and memory sizing for control-plane and worker nodes. | Indirect. Node sizing sets cost. |
| Store | Search, category counts, product cards, details, billing cycle, and quantity. | No |
| Marketplace | Deployment email with application credentials and the values supplied during setup. | No |
| Accounts and access | Low infrastructure-credit notifications, VM password management, tighter rate limiting. | No |
Backup Schedules
Section titled “Backup Schedules”What Changed
Section titled “What Changed”You can create, edit, pause, resume, and run a backup schedule from the portal. Each schedule carries its own settings:
- Timezone. The schedule runs against the timezone you set on it, not a platform default.
- Retention policy. Each schedule keeps backups for the period you set. Retention cleanup removes expired backups.
Activity logs record schedule creation and updates, runs, failures, and retention cleanup.
Backup Billing
Section titled “Backup Billing”Backup billing moves from a charge tied to the schedule to a charge tied to the storage your backups consume.
- The platform bills each backup for the storage it holds.
- Each backup carries its own subscription. That subscription ends when the backup is deleted, whether you delete it or retention cleanup does.
- A paused schedule creates no new backups. Backups already taken continue to bill for the storage they hold until they are deleted.
Backup cost depends on the actual stored backup size and the retention period.
Kubernetes Billing
Section titled “Kubernetes Billing”What Changed
Section titled “What Changed”The platform bills each cloud resource provisioned for a managed Kubernetes cluster, instead of charging a single cluster fee:
- Control-plane virtual machines
- Worker virtual machines
- Block storage volumes
- Networks
- Public IP addresses
- Load balancers
The Kubernetes cluster itself no longer carries a separate charge. The platform lists the resources under Billing → Subscriptions.
Node Sizing
Section titled “Node Sizing”Cluster configurations support different CPU and memory sizes for control-plane nodes and worker nodes. Size the control plane for the API server and etcd, and size workers for the workloads you run on them. See Create Kubernetes Cluster.
Existing Resources
Section titled “Existing Resources”Existing backup billing is being migrated. Existing Kubernetes clusters need a billing configuration update. Review Billing → Subscriptions and contact support to confirm the migration for your resources.
Other Changes
Section titled “Other Changes”- Low infrastructure-credit notifications. The platform notifies you when account credit for infrastructure runs low, before it affects your services.
- VM password management. The portal changes how you manage instance passwords.
- Rate limiting. Tighter limits on ticket, feedback, login, and password-reset requests.
- API tokens. API token expiration settings have been added.
- Storage-driver integration. Kubernetes CSI storage-driver integration is not included in this release.
- Marketplace deployment email. Every successful Marketplace application deployment sends you an email with the application credentials. When the application takes configuration values, the email also lists the values you supplied. See Marketplace.
The Store adds search and browsing:
- Search products by name.
- Browse categories with product counts.
- Open a product to see vendor information, billing cycles, quantity, dynamic pricing, and contract terms before purchase.
CLI Automation
Section titled “CLI Automation”The CLI supports custom VM configuration, load-balancer rule listing, and S3-compatible object-storage access keys. See CLI v0.0.30.
Object Storage Access Keys
Section titled “Object Storage Access Keys”Each object store supports one or two active access keys. Copy the new secret within five minutes of creating the key. Hiding a secret does not revoke it. After updating consumers, revoke the old key. Revocation disables it in object storage and marks it revoked in the control plane. You cannot revoke the last active key.
October Follow-Up
Section titled “October Follow-Up”CLI v0.0.30, released October 3, adds three confirmed CLI changes:
- Create a custom VM by omitting
--planand supplying--cpu,--memory, and--disk. - List load balancer rule IDs with
zcp loadbalancer list-rule <load-balancer-slug>. - Manage S3-compatible object-storage access keys with
zcp object-storage keys. See Object Storage Access Keys.
Also Shipped in Q3 2026
Section titled “Also Shipped in Q3 2026”These changes are already live. Each links to its changelog entry.
| Date | Change |
|---|---|
| July 19, 2026 | CLI v0.0.26: port-forwarding and SSH key fixes. |
| August 16, 2026 | Intel compute in Montreal (YUL). |
| September 1, 2026 | Postpaid billing at signup. |
| September 6, 2026 | Kubernetes 1.37 for new managed clusters. |
| September 6, 2026 | Object storage endpoint DNS resolution from VPCs. |
| September 7, 2026 | Up to 8 subnets per VPC. |
| September 7, 2026 | CLI v0.0.28 and v0.0.29. |
| September 7, 2026 | Terraform / OpenTofu provider v0.2.0. |
What To Do
Section titled “What To Do”- Review the retention period on each backup schedule.
- Delete backups you no longer need. Deleting a backup ends its subscription.
- Review Billing → Subscriptions for Kubernetes resources and contact support to confirm the billing migration.